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Like a college party, "Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising" is an unruly assembly of questionable behavior, but fun if you don't worry about the inevitable hangover.
Parents Mac (Seth Rogen) and Kelly (Rose Byrne), with a second child on the way, are in escrow on their college-adjacent house, and the new buyers have 30 days to cancel the deal. Within that 30 days, three female college freshmen (Chloë Grace Moretz, Kiersey Clemmons and Beanie Feldstein) start the process of sorority rush week, and — discovering that official sororities don't throw parties, and the frat parties are, as one puts it, "super-rapey" — they decide to start their own hard-partying sorority in the now-abandoned frat house next door. What's worse, that frat's former president, Teddy (Zac Efron), is acting as their adviser.
A battle of wills ensues, much as in the first film, though this time director Nicholas Stoller and his all-male screenwriting team add a layer of female empowerment that's endearing and only occasionally grating.
Some of the raunchier jokes are recycled from the first movie, but the cast — particularly Moretz and the scene-stealing Feldstein (Jonah Hill's little sister) — bring exuberance and charm to the enterprise.
'Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising'
Opening Friday, May 20, at theaters everywhere; rated R for crude sexual content including brief graphic nudity, language throughout, drug use and teen partying; 92 minutes.